The footballer and his team are believed to have drafted in a crack squad of former spooks to track down the perpetrators who hacked and stole the cache of emails which have cast a serious shadow over brand Beckham.

Victoria's husband David allegedly had his emails hacked [Flynet]

Cyber-security firm Marclay Associates have been called in to investigate the theft of more than 18.6 million emails.

It was reported earlier this week that 41-year-old Becks was the target of a £1million blackmail plot, with the Mirror revealing that hackers had initially approached Doyen Sports, part of PR guru Simon Oliveira’s Doyen Global.

David Beckham is said to have called in a cyber-security team to investigate his recent hacked emails [Getty]

David, who became a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador in 2005, is quoted as writing: “Unless it’s a knighthood f**k off,” something which he denies ever saying.

"This story is based on outdated material taken out of context from hacked and doctored private emails from a third party server and gives a deliberately inaccurate picture,” a spokesperson for David told People.

"David and UNICEF have had a powerful partnership in support of children for over 15 years.

"The David Beckham 7 Fund specifically has raised millions of pounds and helped millions of vulnerable children around the world.”